Keep on Diggin - Fuller Family Reunion 2017

The Neil Fuller Family descended upon Franklin County in a big way the first weekend of August, 2017 (and yes, I know it is nearly August 2018 - it has been quite a year).

The Neil Fuller Family - minus a few nephews selling in TX and missionaries in Caribbean and California

The reunion was "officially" one day and intended to be as close to Mom and Dad as possible so they could be a part of things. The cool thing about it was that we all wanted to gather the day before and the day after doing other area-activities! And, even the next week, Monday, we had another meal together (those that were still around) at a buffet in Logan! It was truly awesome.

Reunion Prep Crew - burrito-making boys

I will try and relate these days together in chronological order. We had such a great time together, a really special feeling pervaded everything we did. Unfortunately, we missed Janie and her family for most of it (except just Janie, for day-of) as they all came down with stomach sickness. It nearly broke my heart to think of her family missing this fun time.

Day 1
With all of the little kids and minds to teach, Greg and Marci offered a tour of their farm in the morning, complete with Gossners milk -- haha (their farm is Organic Valley).

The funniest of all funniest 2017 family memories was made here. After the tour, the large group gathered at the end of one of Greg's clean barns. We were all just chatting and the two youngest cousins satisfied their curiosity by checking out the gigantic manure splats (that in reality did look like it was hard-packed). After the first step, they both fell to their knees. They were covered from belly to toe in wet manure slop. They came crying to their mothers, who were horrified! We all tried to keep our reactions to ourselves but the image of manure-covered little bodies running to the group will be long remembered. Fortunately, the farm had places to clean manure off little kids :-). 

After a fun lunch at Marci's, Uncle Gaylin has a really great spot on the Bear River for gatherings, called, "The Grove". He suggested we float the river, finishing off at his place, and following the fun with a cookout. We did just that. The floating was really slow but so relaxing and enjoyable. The weather was simply perfect. This was an activity perfect for a large range of ages.

These two girls played in that hot trailer day after day.
They were like two peas in a pod.

The cookout afterward was everything I remembered about cookouts growing up because our mom and dad were both there! I love cookouts. The Grove was neat, Uncle Gaylin and Aunt Edna joined us too.

As for lodging, Jess and Melissa and kids were staying at Mom and Dad's.
Marci, so kindly, set up her camp trailer in Curt's field for my family. I think Dan may have stayed at Mom and Dad's too. His kids were in Arizona with Tricia. Janie's trailer was already in Curt's backyard (I think she had a summer parking pass with that trailer in Idaho).

Day 2
The reunion started bright and early. Basically, everyone showed up at the right time! We wanted to hit the "race-track" pretty early with our first-ever "Fuller Family 5K-ish". The distance doesn't really matter :-) but the race route was from the red brick home to the cemetery. Dad even had his starting gun ready. Everything was very official as you can see.

Dad fired the shot and off we went! Chase was the overall winner and Kayla took first for the females (2nd overall). Janie came in soon after Kayla, taking the oldie goldie award. We also had awards for the "Youngest Finisher" - Aubrey, "Oldest Finisher" - Don, "Best Sportsmanship" - Mom.

We gathered at the North end of the cemetery to enjoy breakfast burritos, race awards, and some fun family chatting to begin the day. This is where t-shirts were handed out, also a first for the family. I introduced the family reunion theme: "Keep On Diggin" - a family saying from Uncle Kenny where he talked about "falling down and getting back up and diggin and diggn".

Master StoryTeller

Cutest Little Seamstresses EVER

We walked back down the hill to the pavilion. I had set up puzzles, a sewing service project for a local hospital, games, and of course more food. We discussed and carried out a family service project for the community which was to spend about 20 minutes (with a group our size, that was all that was needed) weeding and cleaning up a yard in the community. The recipient was so grateful and expressed words of kindness.

Lunch was good, there at the pavilion (even though the bread was pretty hard). The kids played over on the swings and in the "gaga pit". Dan set up a fun slip and slide. We had Sno-Cones and outside games going on.

Before we knew it, our catered dinner showed up, which was definitely delicious (Thank you Smarts!). Then, the big event of the evening was to have a volleyball match between the "Oldie Moldies" and the young teenagers.

Those young girls didn't stand a chance :-)

The game was a blast. Those not playing watched from the sidelines (or played more gaga ball -- seriously, that game was being played nonstop) as the Oldie Moldies took it to the youngsters. Dan brought up how this was reminiscent of being children watching our Uncles play against the older teenage boys. What a fun memory!

Lots of pictures of kids pushing Grandma - she was such a good sport

Day 3
The next day was Sunday and we all showed up in the Clifton ward! It was really special, to all be there together.
We gathered for dinner at Don's afterward.

We finished with a family devotional/skit where I had recorded the uncles (and Dad) giving a saying or singing a song. The kids were supposed to lip sync it and we would all guess who was delivering the prompt.

Maybe it was most fun for me to gather this (and listen to it over and over) as the audio didn't work especially well. Mom was there with us for the potato bar dinner.

Be careful with your eyes, what you see - mm, mm

We finished the evening with watching family movies up in Don's loft. He had us all kneel in prayer before leaving. It was a moment/weekend/none of us wanted to end, it seemed.

8 Siblings in the kitchen of our upbringing
after 2nd Funeral 2018 -- Keep on Diggin - indeed!

Now, fast forward almost exactly a year and, WOW, none of us had any idea what was in store for our family for the next year. The best way I can end this post is to say, "We can do hard things". Families are Forever.

Beautiful dresses of our Mom